"Memories of My Melancholy Whores" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Vintage

Marquez's "Love in the Time of Cholera" is a popular travel companion, but I'll go with this later publication of his, which is much shorter and a quicker read. It caught a lot of flak when published in 2004, and was even banned in Iran. But really is a touching love story, albeit about a 90-year-old man and a pubescent who sells her virginity to him in order to help her family. -- Matthew Wood

Marquez's "Love in the Time of Cholera" is a popular travel companion, but I'll go with this later publication of his, which is much shorter and a quicker read. It caught a lot of flak when published in 2004, and was even banned in Iran. But really is a touching love story, albeit about a 90-year-old man and a pubescent who sells her virginity to him in order to help her family. -- Matthew Wood (Vintage)

Marquez's "Love in the Time of Cholera" is a popular travel companion, but I'll go with this later publication of his, which is much shorter and a quicker read. It caught a lot of flak when published in 2004, and was even banned in Iran. But really is a touching love story, albeit about a 90-year-old man and a pubescent who sells her virginity to him in order to help her family. -- Matthew Wood